Modern sensor-based applications may include sensors managed by a microprocessor. The microprocessor may reside on a chip with other components, memory, blocks, and interfaces. The sensors are often connected to the microprocessor on the chip by a data communication interface (e.g., a serial peripheral interface (SPI) or an Inter-Integrated Circuit (IIC)). The data communication interface facilitates transferring sensor data from the sensors to the microcontroller. Such data may include a single sample or a series of samples and may be collected in a memory on the chip. In some cases, the microprocessor remains in an inactive state (e.g., asleep or consuming little or no power) while each sample is read from the sensor. Once the sample is collected, the processor is brought to an active state (e.g., awakened) by an interrupt request that prompt the microprocessor to, e.g., store the sample in memory. In some systems, a primary function of the microprocessor is to execute an algorithm on a collection of samples from the sensors. Thus, the microprocessor may frequently switch from the active to the inactive state during collection of a number of samples required before executing such an algorithm.